Today in History

Today is Tuesday, Feb. 12, the 43rd day of 2019. There are 322 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Feb. 12, 1999, the Senate voted to acquit President Bill Clinton of perjury and obstruction of justice.

On this date:

In 1809, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was born in a log cabin in Hardin (now LaRue) County, Kentucky.

In 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded.

In 1912, Pu Yi (poo yee), the last emperor of China, abdicated, marking the end of the Qing Dynasty.

In 1914, groundbreaking took place for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. (A year later on this date, the cornerstone was laid.)

In 1924, George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” premiered in New York.

In 1959, the redesigned Lincoln penny — with an image of the Lincoln Memorial replacing two ears of wheat on the reverse side — went into circulation.

In 1963, a Northwest Orient Airlines Boeing 720 broke up during severe turbulence and crashed into the Florida Everglades, killing all 43 people aboard.

In 1973, Operation Homecoming began as the first release of American prisoners of war from the Vietnam conflict took place.

In 1980, the FBI announced that about $5,800 of the $200,000 ransom paid to hijacker “D.B. Cooper” before he parachuted from a Northwest Orient jetliner in 1971 had been found by an 8-year-old boy on a riverbank of the Columbia River in Washington state.

In 1993, in a crime that shocked and outraged Britons, two 10-year-old boys lured 2-year-old James Bulger from his mother at a shopping mall near Liverpool, England, and beat him to death.

In 2000, Charles M. Schulz, creator of the “Peanuts” comic strip, died in Santa Rosa, Calif. at age 77.

In 2008, General Motors reported losing $38.7 billion in 2007, a record annual loss in automotive history, and offered buyouts to 74,000 hourly workers. Uno became the first beagle named Westminster’s best in show.

Ten years ago: Saying he’d made a “mistake” by agreeing to serve, Republican Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire abruptly withdrew his nomination as President Barack Obama’s commerce secretary. A Colgan Air commuter plane crashed into a suburban Buffalo, N.Y., home, killing all 49 aboard and a person in the house. (The victims included Alison Des Forges, 66, a noted expert on the 1994 Rwanda genocide, and Gerry Niewood, 64, and Coleman Mellett, 34, members of Chuck Mangione’s band.)

Five years ago: Legislation to raise the U.S. federal debt limit and prevent a crippling government default cleared Congress. Tina Maze of Slovenia and Dominique Gisin of Switzerland tied for gold in the Olympic women’s downhill at Sochi; it was the first gold-medal tie in Olympic alpine skiing history. Actor-comedian Sid Caesar, 91, died in Beverly Hills, California.

One year ago: In a retreat from promises to balance the budget, President Donald Trump unveiled a $4.4 trillion plan that envisioned steep cuts to America’s social safety net but mounting military spending; the outline acknowledged that the 2017 Republican tax overhaul would add billions to the deficit. Two Baltimore police detectives were convicted of robbery, racketeering and conspiracy at a trial that was part of a federal probe of corruption among rogue members of the city’s police force. The National Portrait Gallery unveiled portraits of former President Barack Obama and his wife, painted by African-American artists chosen by the Obamas. American snowboarder Jamie Anderson won gold in the women’s slopestyle event at the Winter Olympics in South Korea as winds whipped ice pellets across the jumps; most riders fell or abandoned their runs. Wild-haired comedian Marty Allen died in Las Vegas; he was 95.